Sirius Rally Team Founding New BC Stage Event

The Sirius Rally blog will be quiet for a few months while the team prepares for the first annual Big White Winter Rally, a full stage rally presented by Valley Mitsubishi at the Big White Ski Resort, and hosted by the West Coast Rally Association.  The event will feature a snowX similar to last year, which rally cars will run as a super special, plus four snowy forest stages, totaling over 100km of stage distance.

Link to the Big White Rally Weekend HERE.

Targa Newfoundland – Day 6

The final day of Targa Newfoundland 2009 started in Marystown, and competitors made their way back to St.
John’s through a number of stages. Weather was not cooperative today. Rain was constant, and the forecast called for 30-40 mm over the day.
One of our stages ended up being cancelled as the schedule fell further and further behind as the weather required downgraded speeds all day.
Final results should be available soon on Targa Newfoundland website.

Targa Newfoundland – Day 5

Today started at a beautiful little town on the Burin Peninsula called Harbour Mille. Cars ran into the town, breakfast was served at the fire hall, and then the stage was run in reverse. Following that we went to one of my teammate’s mother’s homes for lunch in Lewin’s Cove. Afterwards we worked the finish control at the stage through Marystown.

Targa Newfoundland – Day 4

We got off to an early start this morning, as we were working one of the first stages of the day. Another two competitors went out on the Frederickton-Carmanville, although one managed to get going just as sweep was approaching, and finished the stage, getting a terrible score.
We took a little tour around the Kittiwake coast after our assignment as we had a fair bit of time to make it to our next post. Fantastic scenery in all directions.
We ended the day in North West Brook with a stage that had to be split into two sections due to major construction part way through. Suffice it to say, the construction was warranted.

Targa Newfoundland – Day 1

Today the first stages were run. I woke up with a fine hangover because I have not yet learned to not try to keep up with the English in the pub – the service crew for the cars I posted yesterday just happened to be there.  

Today’s stages were not scored. It was a sort of test day / familiarization course for the competitors. Despite this, the day was not without incident. Car 906, the factory supported STi, driven by Marc LaChapelle & codriven by Keith Townsend, was involved in an off road excursion resulting in a precautionary trip to the hospital for the crew. They were checked out and are fine. Last I heard, they are in need of a steering wheel hub in order to complete repairs.

Targa Newfoundland – Day 0

The combination of jet lag and sleep deprivation has resulted in a feeling of disorientation like no other. I got a basic tour of the St. John’s area from my gracious host which included a jaunt out to Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America.
I met with the rest of the volunteers today, got the standard package of stuff, had a little bit of time to check out the competitors that were on display, and saw a couple of gorgeous twins (see picture.) Now it’s time for a nap…

New Adventure, New Author!

Alex here. I’ll be volunteering this year at Targa Newfoundland. I’ll be working as a radio operator, and should have an interesting perspective. Keep posted here for updates from ‘The Rock.’ I’ll do my best to provide as many updates and photos as time will allow.

Now to get there…

Check out the official Targa Newfoundland website for information about the event.

-Alex

Oregon 1000 Update

Jennifer and Ben survived the first day of the Oregon 1000, accumulating a total of 24 points.  The first place teams has 12 (Kraushaars), 13 (Smith/Song) and 16 (Webster/Harer), with three others close to the Sirius rally total.  Few teams finished the day without a challenge or a story to tell; for Jennifer and Ben it was a haunted rally computer that dropped the count mid-regularity, leaving them with no information for 3 miles.  They were very lucky to take only 5 points at the next checkpoint, the highest single score during their day.  Other teams got lost, had serious computer issues, the wrong in times or rally times; another team burnt out and replaced an alternator at the roadside.  The most memorable roads were twisty, elevation changing tarmac trails through state forests.  Thunderstorms with pounding rain and hail, dramatic lightning and winds followed the teams throughout the afternoon.

Sunday will feature more gravel, and Jennifer and Ben will be focused on catching the teams close in the points totals, and getting a few more zeros before the final control.

WCRA Little White Rally Test Day This Weekend

There might be only a few winter rally roads left in the Okanagan, and the West Coast Rally Association will be hosting the Little White Rally Test Day on one of them outside of Kelowna this weekend.

Link to supregs @ rallyBC HERE.

PBRT Opens 2009 Season at Cochrane Regional Rally This Weekend

The new Prescribed Burn 2004 Subaru STI will take its first rally start at round one of the Western Canadian Rally Championship this weekend. The PBRT service crew has been hard at work converting the street prepped STI into a tough and stage ready open class rally car.

Last year’s Cochrane rally was the first event as the lead rally car for the Prescribed Burn team, an added challenge for still novice codriver Jennifer, and a substantial disadvantage in the winter conditions.  As first car out the Prescribed Burn Impreza cleared the way for the later entries, sweeping the untouched snowy stages at a slower pace.  The team will be looking to improve upon the 2008 result of fifth overall, and aiming to adapt to and show off the new STI.

Link to the Cochrane website with entry list and schedule HERE.

Good luck to all the WCRC competitors, as the race for the 2009 title begins!

Canadian Rally on TSN/RDS

The first event of the 2008 series, Perce-Neige Maniwaki, has been aired on RDS and is now available at flatovercrest.com, in association with CARS and TV2Go. The English version will be on TSN this fall.

The next event on the CARS calendar is the Rocky Mountain National Stage Rally in May. The Prescribed Burn Rally Team will be competing at the Olympus Regional Stage Rally in April as part of their preparation for Rocky.

Cochrane Rally Opens Sirius Stage Season This Weekend

Twenty teams from BC and AB will be rallying through Albertan ranch country at the 2008 Cochrane Rally of the Ranchlands on March 15 & 16. Sirius team members Jennifer and Josh will be in the right seats for Mark Jennings-Bates in an open Impreza and John Breen in a P-3 Focus, respectively.

The G2 battle will be the main focus of the Cochrane Rally this year. Two of the top G2 cars have new codrivers, and a perennial favourite is returning to his old VW ride for the event. Mark and Jennifer are slated as car 1 in the start order, leading all the 2wd cars onto the stages. Being the first car on the road will be a new challenge for Jennifer. The Prescribed Burn rally car has been fined tuned at Rocket, and the volunteer service crew will be out in full force for Cochrane. The Prescribed Burn Team is hoping for a reliable start to the 2008 season, and aiming for a podium place at Cochrane this weekend.

Link to event homepage HERE.

Home! (Car 16, at least)

Well, after last night’s awards banquet and social to-do, the Sirius Rally Team has gone it’s separate ways and headed for home.  As the lucky ones closest to (one of our) homes, we managed to make it back to Calgary by 9 in the morning on Wednesday.  As it turns out, neither of us could sleep past 4 am, so we decided to hit the road.  The Icefields Parkway is spectacular in the daytime, but not much to look at at 5 in the morning.

So, a team update on behalf of the travelling Siriusians still on the road!

As a team we all did extremely well, especially for rookies!  Car 18, Bill and Doug, finished 12th overall and 2nd in class IIE, with 271 points.  This was a great finish for a great couple of guys.  They had the most entertaining runs through the ice race course, with the snowbank crushing power of the Dodge.   Car 17, Jen, Gord and August, finished 11th overall and 2nd in class IE with 261.4 points.  They claimed first overall in the ice races on combined times, beating all of the perennial favourites in this part of the competition.  We in Car 16 finished 9th overall and first in class IIE, with 159.9 points.  Most importantly, all of us on the team had a great time, enjoyed each other’s company and made it to the end of the event with relatively little drama.

All of this was announced at the end of rally banquet at the Jasper Inn, where each car and team was described with some highlights, along with their scores and standings.  A computer projector showed photos and videos from the event, and great fun was had watching all the clean lines and major stuffs from the ice races.  After the dinner, we all chatted and talked about the event and rally in general.  It was great being able to kick back and get to know so many people from across the continent(s, for car 12).

All in all, a fantastic event and a great experience!

Josh

Four Decades of Winners Compete at Thunderbird Rally

With tonnes of snow and an exciting entry field, the 2008 Thunderbird TSD Rally is sure to be an epic ride. The rally will feature snowy backroads between Merritt and Kamloops BC; the ample snowfall this season has created snowbanks big enough to keep cars on course. Thunderbird is the largest TSD Rally in BC, and draws teams from as far away as Arizona and California.

The entry field is stacked with over 15 teams that have won the event in the sixties, seventies, nineties and in recent years. Taisto Heinonen, one of the most decorated stage rallyists in Canada, tops the entry list. Competitors for the 2008 Alcan 5000 are also well represented, mostly by factory teams. The oldest car entered at present is a 1971 Alfa Romeo that also made an appearance at Totem last year.

This year all cars are required to be part of a team entry. This was optional last year and the Sirius crew founded the Eis Munky Rally Team, which is being represented again by TSD veterans Gil Stuart and Chris Peake. The 07 Eis Munkys finished in last place as a team, plagued by mechanical problems, but with new rules and a new line up, the 08 Eis Munkys could have a shot at the Savoia Aero Team Prize.

The Sirius Rally Team will be represented at TBird by Jennifer, who will be checkpointing in the Rex. Gord will be with the Rocket crew at Perce-Neige. Thunderbird was the first rally for Jennifer and August as a team in 2005; Gord and Onur ran in 2006 with no heater as the first rally for the Rocket Legacy. The organizers kindly moved the event this year to accommodate Alcan teams, so Thunderbird will be a great snowy warm up event for the Alcan adventure that starts next weekend!

Sirius Team in Action at RallyX Opener

Jennifer and Gord will be competing in the first event of the 2008 season this weekend at Barnes Lake. The iceX will be similar in format to the four ice slaloms on the Alcan route in February. Jennifer will be driving the semi-prepped Alcan wrx and Gord will be in his Legacy; tire decisions are still being made but both will likely compete in the AWD rubber class.

The highway east of Stewart has been closed again over the weekend. Winter storms traveling through the lower mainland created an ice rink over the Coquihalla, and challenging conditions for some winter driving practice. The team spent Saturday at the shop, working on the communications and navigations mods for Alcan, and the rex is almost ready for action!

Click HERE for event info.

Click HERE for prep day pics.

OK Lake Rally Test Day Tomorrow

The first Okanagan rally event in recent history, planned by Sirius Rally Team staff, is taking place off of Bear Creek Main FSR tomorrow. There are reports of snow within about 200m of the stage finish, so it is shaping up to be a wild ride. There will a car from Alberta and one from Kamloops out for pre-PFR shakedowns, as well as the local Prescribed Burn Car, and a car from Rocket Rally. The latter two entries will be showcasing rally up close in the right seat for raffle winners and volunteers.

Volunteers should arrive @ 0800. Recce begins @ 0800, and the first car out is @ 1000.

Thanks to the Orchard City Amateur Radio Club for HAM support, and Coldwell Banker for providing lunches for our new volunteer crews!

Click HERE for supplementary regulations.

Watching and Wandering at Defi National Stage Rally

Over the Labour Day Weekend, Gord made his debut as a rally spectator at the Defi National Stage Rally while on holiday in Montreal. The rally takes place a couple of hours outside of Montreal in small towns around Ste-Agathe and Duhamel. Joined by Jennifer and displaced BC rallyist and pal Andy, who extended generous hospitality and pure insanity behind the wheel of his minivan, they experienced Quebec rallying at its chaotic best.

In Quebec the spectators haul their chairs, coolers, bbqs and other rally gear onto school buses to be transported to the stage. Bus after bus was filled with people and there were big, enthusiastic crowds at the spectator points; the party atmosphere added a lot of fun and craziness to watching the cars speed by.

Friday was the easier day for spectating, but we enjoyed watching the in town tarmac stages, getting a bit lost, and tearing around the early stages after they were closed on Saturday. There was a little bit of rally carnage – a lucky scrape along a tree early in the rally, and multiple cars complaining and limping out of the final stages, adding to a decent total of mechanical DNFs.

The event was typically dominated by Antoine and Natalie in their Tiburon, who have signed on to promote Hyundai’s new performance parts and are newly sponsored by the manufacturer. Matthew L’Estage looked extremely fast on the stages until he trashed his transmission. There were some quick and entertaining VWs at the back of the pack that were fun to watch. Alberta friends Eric and Leanne were looking quick as well, but had too many flats on the longest Saturday stages and fell out of contention.

In total the Sirius Rally Team has been present at all but one of the Canadian National Rallies this year. The Pacific Forest Rally is up next in October, where Jennifer and Mark will be striving for their best finish in the (hopefully) newly painted Prescribed Burn Rally Car.

Click HERE for event photos. (caveat – professional photographers we are not)
Click HERE for event video clips. (again, short amateur clips for fun)

Sirius Team to Tackle Night on Bald Mountain

Night on Bald Mountain is an infamous gravel TSD in Washington’s Snoqualmie Mountain Pass. The rally uses an alpine Monte Carlo format, and this combined with working in miles, will be good Alcan practice. Jennifer and Gord are taking the rex; this will be Gord’s first US event as a TSD codriver. Despite its title, this TSD is not an all nighter and is therefore not likely to be nearly as tough as Gold Digger!

Click HERE for event information.

Digging for Rally Gold this Weekend

Sirius Team members Gord and Jennifer are competing in the Gold Digger TSD Rally out of Pemberton BC this weekend. This rally is an all night event with rough roads and fantastic stargazing. The 2006 event was the first rally Gord and Jennifer ever entered together. Blue Thunder is taking a break from its blossoming stage career to tackle the unique challenges of a night TSD rally, with Gord behind the wheel. With Jennifer manning the calculator there’s not much promise of a win, but it will be great Alcan practice and good fun. New rally pal Dave Hood and his wife Angie will be bringing up the rear in the sweep truck for the event. We really hope not to see them on the course until Sunday morning at breakfast! Check back for results and rally stories on Sunday.

SnoGit TSD this Weekend

Sirius team member Jennifer will be joining up with experienced codriver Ben Bradley for the SnoGit TSD in Marysville WA on Saturday. This TSD will be her first ‘Monte Carlo’ tarmac race. It includes some ‘do it yourself’ control points, which will be new to Jennifer, but old news to Ben! These sorts of checkpoints are part of the ALCAN rally in February, so it will be great practice. They will be competing in the unlimited class with the Rex. Jennifer is making the trip down with fellow Kelowna rally keeners Dave Hood and Alex Schubel, who will be running in Dave’s Impreza. There will likely be some camping in the rain but the tarmac regularities should be good fun, and it’s a great opportunity to learn from Ben, who has competed in ALCAN previously.

2007 Mountain Trials Stage Rally This Weekend!

Sirius Rally Team members Jennifer and Gord will be in Merritt BC for the Mountain Trials Regional Stage Rally, taking place June 15/16. Jennifer will be codriving for the Prescribed Burn Rally Team, and Gord will be taking care of the Rocket Legacy, which is rented for the event.

This will be the first recce event for Mark and Jennifer. On Friday they will drive the stages and make their own pacenotes, which are essential to a good performance on Saturday. The Prescribed Burn car again has escaped the new paint job, but many of the mechanical problems that plagued the team at Rocky have been remedied. The Prescribed Burn service crew, Steve and Trevor from Agar Autobody, will be joining the team in Merritt. The weather is forecasted to be warm and it should be a great event.

Click HERE to view the Mountain Trials homepage.
Click HERE for updates on Merritt weather.

Happy Fathers’ Day to all our dads. We’ll call you on Sunday with some great rally stories!

Prescribed Burn Comeback at Rocky Mountain Rally

Sirius Rally team member Jennifer completed her first serious stage rally this weekend, as a codriver for Mark Jennings-Bates. The weather was beautiful and the stages were dry and fast. Friday’s national leg was complicated by a blown turbo hose early in the rally, and a temporary transmission failure on the final motocross park stage. Jennifer made a novice decision to check in to service early in order to maximize time to repair the turbo and incured a substantial penalty. Mark improvised an effective turbo pipe seal, and the team continued Friday lacking boost power to the turbo engine. All these setbacks left the Prescribed Burn Team in 30th place for Saturday’s regional leg.

Undeterred by the disadvantage of placing last and 1.5 minutes behind the next car, Mark and Jennifer progressed on the Saturday stages, overtaking competitors on nearly every stage. The shadymobile put on a fantastic spectator show, overtaking a car on a tight corner on an early stage, and taking a fast wrong turn and spinout later on the same corner. A questionable reseed left them behind a number of cars they passed on previous stages, but Mark was concise and assertive in regaining postition over the later stages. The team posted the fourth fastest times on SS12 and SS14 despite an ailing turbo. Jennifer progressively got a handle on the sometimes superfluous Jemba notes and allowed Mark to get a good rythym and gain substantial time on stage by the end of the day.

The Prescribed Burn / Sirius Rally Team finished in 8th Regional and 15th overall. This was an outstanding result given the mechanical troubles, penalties and codriver inexperience!!

Jennifer and Mark are looking forward to Mountain Trials Regional Stage Rally in June, where the Prescribed Burn Team will increase the level of competition and challenge the regional leaders for a top five finish.

Without Gord on Saturday the Rocket Rally crew was very busy at service. The Rocket Rally open car placed 1st in open and 3rd overall, with Gord Olsen at the wheel.

Link to Rocky Mountain photos HERE.

2007 Rocky Mountain Weekend Begins

Sirius Rally Team members are departing today for the Rocky Mountain National Stage Rally taking place outside of Calgary, Alberta. Jennifer will be codriving for the Prescribed Burn Rally Team. This is Jennifer’s first big rally as a codriver, and the pressure is on to keep pace with her teammate and established rally driver Mark Jennings-Bates. They have entered both the national and the regional events in Open class. Mark is familiar with the Rocky stage roads but is still getting to know both his new car and his new codriver. Jennifer’s job this time out will be to avoid time and control penalties, and to get some practice reading Jemba notes at speed. This could very easily be the event that authenticates Jennifer’s status as a total rally addict.

Gord and Onur will be supporting Gord Olsen’s run for the win in a Rocket Rally rental car. Maybe they’ll give the Prescribed Burn Team a little help on the side too….

Click HERE for a great summary of the event on the SpecialStage Rally Forum.
Link to the Rocky Mountain Rally website HERE.

Wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted!

Update – Thursday AM
Warwick and I arrived safely but our overnight drive was a snowstorm from Revelstoke onwards. It is snowing in Calgary, and the weatherman is predicting 10cm overnight. It is shaping up to be a snow and mud rally! The Prescribed Burn car is still not running and will be trailered to the race to be assembled with parts from Rocket Rally. The rex was initially considered as a donor vehicle, but I’m glad there was a better option.

May Event Updates

The Sirius Rally Team is scheduled to be very busy this May as adventure racers, stage rallyists and service crew. Gord will be competing solo in The Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race because of Jennifer’s untimely clavicle fracture. This was a huge bummer because it was in Squamish and our first adventure race ever. We are considering MOMAR events later in the season, and Jennifer will be healed in time for Rocky. As mentioned below, she’s taking on a new codriving assignment as a Prescribed Burn Rally Team member. We may also be traveling to Washington for the Olympus Rally on May 24 Weekend. There’s not much of a break before TSD and Stage events in June…. Alcan deadlines are coming up fast.

Click HERE for the Olympus Stage Rally website.
Click HERE for the Rocky Mountain Stage Rally website.

Alcan 5000 – Seattle to Tuktoyaktuk!!!

The prerun survey for Alcan 5000 Winter Rally ‘08 has been completed and the route preferred by the Sirius Rally Team has been selected. The revised itinerary includes two extra ice slaloms and the rally will be 4900 miles (7840 km) in length. Alcan 2008 will take us through Whitehorse, Inuvik and many other places on our way to the final stop in Jasper.

View the updated itinerary HERE.
View photos from the survey HERE.

2007 Cochrane Rally Update

The Cochrane Regional Stage Rally is taking place outside of Calgary on March 17-18. Sirius Rally Team members have not entered the rally, but we will be there! Gord will be working for Rocket Rally as service chief; Jennifer will be spectating and taking a pace notes class. Best of luck and safety to the competitors. View the event homepage HERE.